Apple quietly announced the M3 upgrade to its MacBook Air lineup earlier this week and South Africa has just as quietly gotten pre-order details. More or less.
Whether you’re after an upgraded 13in or 15in Air, you can register your interest today. The hardware is expected to launch in the country on 15 March, which is in keeping with the trend of having this stuff turn up on a Friday. After all, pre-orders opened today. Availability a week later is typically Apple.
Drive a new M3
If you’re after the smaller of the two MacBook Air models, expect to pay at least R26,000 for the base model with 256GB of storage. There are few choices available if that’s the way you’re planning to go. An eight-core CPU/GPU and 8GB of system memory are standard at that point.
Opt for the 512GB model and you’ll nab an eight-core CPU/ten-core GPU and either 8GB (R31,000) or 16GB (R35,000) of system memory. That’s also typically Apple (in South Africa).
The 15in M3 MacBook Air starts at R30,500 for 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. Scale up to 512GB of storage and expect to pay R35,000. Add a further 8GB of RAM for a 16GB total and your bill will be R40,000. All 15in M3 Air models ship with the eight-core CPU/ten-core GPU version of Apple’s speedy new processor.
1 Comment
R35,000 for MacBook Air 15 8GB (M2 R33-35K) and R40,000 for 16GB model is typical Apple: overpriced. If the price jump between the 8GB and 16GB models are expensive here, it’s too elsewhere, the US around $300. One YouTube tech reviewer advised for that price one should buy the MacBook Pro 14 which overall is better. But there are much cheaper Windows machines of almost the same quality and better performance eg Asus Zenbook 14s.